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'Full off' bug and consequent battery power problems

My radio’s ‘full off’ mode (ie holding down the power button for more than 2 seconds until the ‘Goodbye’ message appears) has never worked properly. The Radio doesn’t stay off, but within a few seconds starts its ‘on’ sequence spontaneously (the Logitech logo, the ‘Free your Music’ message and the Logitech jingle). This happens in both mains and battery power modes, and on both mysqueezebox.com and local SBS connections.

In the past this has not been a big problem and I never investigated it. However, I have recently switched to battery working and I am now plagued by the well reported problem of the radio turning itself ‘on’ spontaneously and promptly draining the battery. Having read through most of the various reports, I am starting to believe that the state of the streaming, connection to mysqueezebox.com vs local SBS etc are red herrings. I think the following is the sequence of events:

1. I press the power button momentarily to switch Radio to standby (I have set a blank screensaver to conserve power)
2. Because standby actually counts as ‘ON’ (http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.ph..._Radio_Battery refers), the Radio then automatically turns ‘full off’ after 20 minutes of idling.
3. The automatic turning off sequence then encounters the ‘full off’ problem I described above and the Radio therefore turns itself back on!

Of course, this is especially annoying for a Radio that is only used in a bathroom for a short period each day and then left unattended – as soon as it comes on spontaneously the battery starts to drain so unless you notice and turn it off again quickly then the battery goes flat within a day.

Three questions:

- Does this sequence appear plausible?
- If so, is there a solution to the 'full off' problem?
- Even if I can solve this problem, I will be left with having to wake up the Radio every day from ‘full off’ which is very slow. I know this has been complained about/documented elsewhere – is there any workaround?

For the record, I have seen the above sequence occur on battery only (never on mains power) under all combinations of the following circumstances:

Squeezebox Server 7.5.1, 9009 firmware on Radio
Squeezebox Server 7.5.2, 9009 firmware on Radio
Any state of stream playing/paused/stopped
Any connection – happens on both mysqueezebox.com and local Squeezebox Server
No alarms set

In the past I’ve quite enjoyed learning about and sorting through less significant issues (notably native AAC decoding problems) through participating in bug reports etc, but this one is a showstopper. I’m reluctantly coming to the conclusion that getting a Radio isn’t a normal purchase of consumer electronics – it’s an invitation to join the development team, who seem now to be fighting a losing battle with their (frustrating but potentially excellent) product.

Even if I can solve this problem, I will be left with having to wake up the Radio every day from ‘full off’ which is very slow. I know this has been complained about/documented elsewhere – is there any workaround?

I can only think of one: Extend the low voltage power cord from the Radio's PSU so it reaches your bathroom. Since the Radio runs on low voltage (12V ?) there shouldn't be a safety problem, but you'll want the extension cord to be relatively thick to minimize voltage loss. Also, this may blow your warranty.

I also have the same "full off" or power off problem. When press and hold the power button until the "good bye" message shows on screen, it should turn the radio of. But the radio will turn back on 50% of the time. This is a new bug for 7.5.1 r9009. I never had the problem before the upgrade.

Power OFF doesn't stay OFF

Could you perform a Factory Reset to see if it fixes this? Go to Settings->Advanced->Restore Factory Settings and choose Continue.

After you finish with initial setup again, can you retest by holding the Power button down for more than 2 seconds afterwards? It should now power OFF and stay OFF. If it doesn't, the unit is defective -- please call Customer Support to exchange the unit.

Please mention that the unit should be forwarded to Engineering for further examination. We're not sure why this issue would suddenly appear on some Radios with r9009, and we'd like to find out why.

Soulkeeper: I had considered this as a last resort! It’s a bit desperate (in every sense) though.

Ply3908: Unlike your experience, I have definitely seen this problem ever since I bought the Radio, well prior to r9009, and it happens for me 100% of the time.

MickeyG: I have now done the Factory Reset, and exactly the same behaviour is still there. I’ll send the unit back for an exchange as you suggest – hope it helps both of us! Should I return the battery pack and remote as well? Hopefully you don’t need this, as it took ages to arrive.

Loom: I never thought of trying a longer button hold-down period. I’ve just tried it (before and after the Factory Reset) and it doesn't make any difference - the Radio still restarts itself.

For what it's worth, I noticed one inaccuracy in my original post - the restart doesn't happen within a few seconds, rather the 'Goodbye' message stays frozen on the screen for about a minute, and then the restart gets going.

For what it's worth, I noticed one inaccuracy in my original post - the restart doesn't happen within a few seconds, rather the 'Goodbye' message stays frozen on the screen for about a minute, and then the restart gets going.

Oooh that's an interesting piece of data: sounds like the shutdown isn't working for some reason, then the watchdog kicks in ("hey, things are confused, let me reboot!") and nullifies the shutdown by rebooting..

Of course the -why- of that is a different matter.

My Radio is on a different network than I am (even though I'm a foot from it... it's on a cable modem instead of using the expensive work bandwidth) so I can't check, but if you're comfortable with it, it would be interesting if you could log into the radio and see if it's logged something about why the shutdown failed.

You'd have to turn on ssh, log in to the radio and there are log files in /var/log I believe. Or let Mickey or someone else here step you through things.. or send it back so they can.

Unable to power OFF Radio -- please call Customer Support

Originally Posted by ww1223

Thanks to everyone for the replies. ...

MickeyG: I have now done the Factory Reset, and exactly the same behaviour is still there. I’ll send the unit back for an exchange as you suggest – hope it helps both of us! Should I return the battery pack and remote as well? Hopefully you don’t need this, as it took ages to arrive.

...

For what it's worth, I noticed one inaccuracy in my original post - the restart doesn't happen within a few seconds, rather the 'Goodbye' message stays frozen on the screen for about a minute, and then the restart gets going.

Thanks again,
Bill

I concur with Snarlydwarf's observations. However, Radio logs are generally not useful with Power ON/OFF problems.

Have you been able to charge the battery when AC power is plugged in? Please return the battery too if you have never been able to charge the battery. Do not include the remote in any case.

Anyone with this symptom has a defective Radio and should contact support for an exchange.

ssh into the Radio and pulling off logfiles is probably at the outer limit of my technical ability anyway, so in view of MickeyG's advice I'll just send back the radio as requested for the pros to take a look.

The battery does charge OK (just as well as the Radio's behaviour is so keen to discharge it again!) so I'll keep it plus the remote.

If I get any problems with Logitech customer service, I'll come back to the forum, otherwise I'll sign off for now.